Saturday, April 11, 2009

Muddy Waters

I spent most of my drive time the last few days hitting repeat on this song off Nick Cave's Kicking Against The Pricks album. I'm pretty sure I've heard Bruce Springsteen do it as well. It's a goddamn metaphor for dislocation, desperation, and being swept away. After a few days, I got clear that this one's supposed to be hard, dark, and bluesy as hell. That's actually an acoustic guitar in there. Garageband is amazing.

Mary, grab the baby, the river's risingMuddy water taking back the landThe old-frame house, she can't take-a one more beatingAin't no use to stay and make a stand

Well the morning light shows water in the valleyDaddy's grave just went below the lineThings to say, you just can't take em with yaThis flood will swallow all you've left behind

Won't be back to start all overCause what I felt before is gone

Mary, take the child, the river's risingMuddy water taking back my homeThe road is gone, there's just one way to leave hereTurn my back on what I've left belowShifting land, broken farms around meMuddy water's changing all I know

It's hard to say just what I'm losingAin't never felt so all alone

Mary, take the child, the river's risingMuddy water taking back my home

Won't be back to start all overCause what I felt before is gone

Mary, take the child, the river's risingMuddy water's changing all I knowMuddy water's changing all I knowLord, this muddy water is taking back my home

14 comments:

Sherry in NH
said...

Holy crap. I just floated in from NH via Philip's Seattle Furious Seasons blog. It took me most of the song to figure out the blogger and the singer are the same person. Wow. Thank you *so* much. I can't wait to hear your other stuff. This was amazing, loved it. Thank you. (I've been to Seattle and really liked it a lot.)

Warning: Strong Opinions and Language

About Me

“Being is becoming,” and if we’re not “becoming,” we’re probably not doing much “being” either. This blog was started in a half-assed attempt at self-excavation. I have at least two unusual personality traits. The first is that I’m abnormally comfortable with ambiguity. I can happily muck about in the gray areas for years on end. This is probably why I love Seattle. The other is that I have a completely unrealistic belief in my own agency, which I tend to act upon. This blog has changed my life in more ways than I ever imagined. As my job as ED of a activist newspaper sold by homeless people, my vision for organizing, my thinking as a teacher, my history as a working-poor loser turned middle-class “advocate,” and my life as a parent swirled about me, this blog has been a path toward the center. We live in dangerous times, and the seductions to an easy, half-lived life of anesthetized materialism are all around. I have come to understand that my work is to be a revolutionary, both out in the world and within myself, turning over what is old, rotten, stale, and repressive, and building for a future where we can all find happiness and have the things we truly need.